Umair Yasin

The inner ear is best known for the cochlea, which converts sound into nerve impulses, for our hearing. But it also contains the vestibular system, which is crucial for balance. The vestibular system is responsible for detecting your head’s orientation in space and its motion. Angular acceleration, or rotational motion, is detected about 3 separate axes by the semicircular canals. Linear acceleration, as well as gravity, are detected in the forward and back direction as well as the side to side direction, by two “otolith organs”, the utricle and saccule. These sensors both directly trigger various reflex movements and provide information to the brain. The semicircular canals in the figure, together with the Otolith organs and associated nerves, form the vestibular system I’ll describe how they work below, but first a brief overview of their purpose. If you lean forward or to the side, the otolith organs sense gravity pulling down on your head. This triggers reflex action in muscles...

Now that I’m on the mend I’ve had time to reflect on my recent medical escapade and see what I can learn from it. Here are a few things that spring to mind. Be careful what you wish for- A couple of days before my severe vertigo incident, I remember thinking to myself that my blog was getting boring and I needed some more fuel for it! You’re not in control as much as you think you are – I had the weeks leading up to my birthday in January planned out in exquisite detail. Needless to say that plan is out the window now. I remember hearing the saying somewhere that “when we make plans, the universe laughs” (I’m sure various cultures have their own versions of a saying like this). Keep Training Balanced – The purpose of the training I do is healthy aging. I’ve discussed previously that I think there are multiple aspects of this. Physical training is only one part, there are also nutrition and mental and spirituals aspects. Physical is the most fun for me so I sometimes emphasi...

Last Thursday I was able to get into see my extremely talented physician, Dr. Smruti Nalawadi, for a follow-up. I had talked about working with a preventive medicine specialist previously . Unfortunately, having Dr. Moayed as my primary care physician was awkward because she is way up in Campbell. So I was happy to find another doctor here in Morgan Hill that also believes in preventive medicine, and now she is my PCP. But Dr. Nalawadi is also an internal medicine specialist, so it’s that expertise that really comes in handy now. From what I was told in the hospital and all the reading I’ve done, I thought I was on top of what to do next for follow-up. But there was still doubt buzzing around in my head about what specialist to see first, how do I choose a good ear doc, etc. Then I saw Dr. Nalawadi and it was an incredible relief to just turn it over to an expert. I went in with a whole sheet of typed-up questions and related symptoms I thought might help with my diagnosis. She came i...

I’m still improving day by day. A major advance was on Monday afternoon when I got a home PT visit from Nichine, who agreed it’s fine for me to use two canes or two hiking poles instead of a walker. I have to use the former when my wife is with me because she says people will think I look like a dork with the latter. See this post for my opinion on what people think, so I’ll use the poles when I’m alone. Either choice is, for me, vastly superior to a walker. Those are a great short-term solution for keeping the mobility challenged (which has included me recently) safe. But I don’t like them because you can’t swing your arms so the gait is unnatural, and you are always fussing with bringing the back legs forward. The four-wheeled ones shown below are better, at least they roll continuously and are more impervious to obstacles like uneven sidewalks. And they are still safe because you can squeeze the brakes. My mom was on a walker for years and did well with one of these. https://sen...

My previous post expressed my sincere gratitude to the medical profession and all its representatives who have helped me through my most recent health adventure and all my previous ones. I still stand by that. But there is one area in which I’d like to offer some constructive criticism, in the face of our modern prevalence of chronic lifestyle diseases: sometimes “average” symptoms are confused with “normal”. What brought this up is that I was incorrectly diagnosed with bradycardia , or abnormal resting heart rate, during my recent hospital stay. No harm was done, it was just something incorrectly noted in my record. My personal physician, who understands my situation better, will I’m sure correct this tomorrow when I see her. I was reluctant to show this picture because I’m not trying to make fun of the guy on the left. He may be a great guy, a first responder, the world’s best grandpa, or he does a lot of volunteer work. But his appearance is more representative of the average o...

I’m on the mend since my last post. My vertigo has recovered from everything seeming like it’s spinning fast 360 degrees last Thursday, to everything being normal now but a little “glitch” every once in a while where my vision seems to wiggle back and forth slightly. Unfortunately, that can result in a misstep and slight balance loss to the left or right. The walker is my safety net if that happens. I’m hoping I can also use two canes instead because that allows a more normal gait, the walker suppresses arm swing. I get an at-home PT visit tomorrow and hope she’ll agree. First I want to thank all readers who expressed support. Second is to all the great care I received. The modern medical system gets a lot of flack. It’s true that it struggles with chronic conditions that are caused by poor diet and lifestyle, but it is superb at emergency medicine like this. The paramedics who showed up and transported me were great. The initial evaluation that made a diagnosis of stroke unlikely ...

The short version of this story is that I have been diagnosed with a benign and treatable inner ear condition called “ benign paroxysmal positional vertigo “. But diagnosing it required 911, transport by ambulance to our local St. Louise County hospital, lots of tests, and a 2-day stay. Care was wonderful, but it’s great to be back home. I have to temporarily use a walker for safety until we clear up the vertigo completely (which may just require PT, the next step is to go see an ear-nose-throat doc. https://newsnetwork.mayoclinic.org/discussion/mayo-clinic-q-and-a-bppv-dizziness-caused-by-inner-ear-crystals/ Long version: On Thursday night I woke up around 1 pm with severe vertigo and nausea. The room was spinning. I decided to go take some Pepto Bismol for the nausea, but when I got up I almost keeled over. I was unable to walk. Nausea and dizziness are on the list of stroke symptoms so I became concerned and (literally) crawled over to my bp meter, and it read high, (171/80)...

We had a pretty severe storm ending Tuesday morning that brought much-needed rain. We got almost 3 inches here in Morgan Hill. My group ride got canceled because the weather report was pessimistic so I risked it on my own. It turned out there were just some late morning showers, then it got nice and the sun finally came out. I’m still not cleared to do high intensity until I see my eye Doc Thursday, but I can do a long and easy ride. Unfortunately, my digital camera battery died so I didn’t get enough pictures to do the beautiful scenery justice but I did get a few. Early on at Chictatic-Adams park, it was still cloudy. View of the Gavilans in the distance Later from the bike trail ending at the Gilroy Sports Complex. Some blue peaking through. Looking North back at Chictatic-Adams park on my way back 71 Miles in 5 hours, my longest ride in a while. I kept my average heart rate under 120 which is easy pace for me. I’m getting pretty good at doing that just from perceived exe...

I took a few days off after my surgery and just walked. My eye Doc told me not to do anything strenuous for a week, so no weightlifting or hard training. He also said no impact so having an accident on my bike wouldn’t be good. I figured it was ok to go for an easy ride if I was careful and kept to quiet roads. It felt great and relaxing to be out riding again on a nice day. I’ll keep up easy activities like this and walking till I see him again next week and find out when I can do more. So far so good on the eye, my vision is much clearer. Late Fall Colors and El Toro From My Neighborhood View From the top of Diana Road from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/3pMM2n4 via IFTTT

I have fallen into this trap myself in the past, convincing myself I was eating healthy when I really wasn’t. The link in the post has an example that 72% of Americans think granola bars, which actually have a lot of sugar, are healthy. FOOD, FACTS and FADS “Most people try to do the best they can, given their circumstances,” Nestle adds, but there are lots of factors that shape our eating habits: “Education is an issue, but so is relentless food marketing.” Dr. Marion Nestle CLICK HERE. View original post from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/3GvAj3a via IFTTT

I had my cataract surgery Tuesday, and it went well. It’s a pretty minor procedure, after all, compared to some of my past adventures. I think it took under 30 minutes, about 10 for the main part. The anesthesiologist said I would be sedated, but to a lesser extent than “twilight sleep”, and would also have a local anesthetic as well as a topical anesthetic for the eye. I was drowsy and in and out of sleep. I remember hearing some funny machine noises and a lot of colors. I was warned there might be a feeling of pressure but that there should be no pain. I don’t remember even the pressure. The rest of the day and until my follow-up with the Doc the next day I had to wear an eyepatch. This was a bit wierd because I had vision in the eye, so my brain was trying to integrate the view of the outside world from my left eye with the view of the inside of an eyepatch from the right, into a coherent image. What it came up with was kind of flat, with little depth perception. I watched a footba...

I’m going in for cataract surgery bright and early this morning. Then I’ll have an eye patch for a day, so my next post is probably Thursday. I’m looking forward to clear vision in my right eye! from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/3m3tnm7 via IFTTT

We did about a 2 1/2 hour ride out and back to the end of Redwood Retreat Road in the hills West of Gilroy. I did an extra half an hour by taking the long way to the start of the ride in southwest Morgan Hill. I took my Sirrus upright and practiced standing pedaling a lot. I’ve mentioned previously that I enjoy doing that, it’s like “ running on air “. But on this ride, I did more of it uphill which is more challenging so it was a good workout. We were blessed with another beautiful late fall day. Regrouping at Chictatic-Adams County Park, Looking south from our regroup spot, the Gavilan range in the distance. Quick Stop at the end of Redwood Retreat Road. Nice contrast between the green fields and the fall colors of the vineyard. Llamas and Alpacas at a farm on the way back. from BionicOldGuy https://ift.tt/3xOTJgh via IFTTT

When I went hiking last Saturday, I ran into some friends I hadn’t seen since pre-Covid. We compared notes on how we did during that time. Some had not done as well as others, including one person who had gotten rather sedentary and was noticeably slower than the last time we hiked together. As I’ve discussed previously, I’m a big fan of making fitness fun. But I’ve noticed some peoples’ programs can be more fragile if they only do a single sport (like hiking or biking), and especially if it is only fun for them if they are out in nature and in a group setting. These are two components that got interfered with by Covid shutdowns, and also here in California when we get bad air during wildfire season. My own program is partially immune to this because I like to do multiple activities (biking, hiking, walking, cross-country skiing, kayaking, and canoeing). And while I love group activities, I also get enjoyment out of doing these solo and treating them as meditation in motion. The multi...